The electronic and manufacturing issues associated with thin film transistors (TFTs) can be viewed as representative of the electronic and manufacturing issues associated with many thin film electrical components. TFTs are widely used as switching elements in electronics, for example, in active-matrix liquid-crystal displays, smart cards, and a variety of other electronic devices and components thereof. Diodes, solar cells, liquid crystal displays, thin-film memory and other printed electronics are examples of components of electronic devices that can all be made using the same processes used to form thin film transistors.
As noted in U.S. Pat. No. 8,242,793 to Kumhyr et al., entitled “Electromagnetic profiling to validate electronic device authenticity,” much of the value found in electronic devices is developed during the design of the electronic devices rather than the manufacture of the electronic devices. For example, an integrated circuit processor or thin film device often results from an intense and expensive development process, but the actual materials used to build the integrated circuit processor or thin film device typically cost only a few dollars. To protect the investment made during development, manufacturers attempt to keep circuit designs from becoming public so that counterfeiters cannot copy the designs and produce counterfeit circuits. In some instances, however, counterfeiters reverse-engineer the design, or the functions performed by the design, to create counterfeit devices. A counterfeiter hides the misdeed by simply labeling the counterfeit device with a counterfeited identifier. An end user who purchases a device with counterfeit electronic device components often has no idea unless something goes wrong.
The presence of counterfeit electronic devices or electronic components within an electronic device presents a number of business risks and security risks. With respect to business risks, an enterprise that purchases a device from a name brand manufacturer typically pays more for the device relative to competitive devices under the assumption that the name brand device has a higher quality, with better performance and reliability. Manufacturers who have their products counterfeited risk a loss in reputation because of failures associated with counterfeit components. Components that do not function up to the original manufacture specifications expose the end user to unplanned outages and denial of warranty service, while the manufacturer is exposed to potential liability for fixing systems that the manufacturer did not build or sell. For example, the manufacturer may not recognize the counterfeit components or may elect to provide warranty service to protect its reputation.
U.S. Patent Application Publication 2015/0002346 to Subbaraman et al., entitled “Integrated printed decorative antenna and electronics,” suggests printing a decorative image onto printed electronic circuits. For example, a printed decorative image atop the layer of a printed antenna structure, wherein the printed antenna structure is substantially concealed by the printed decorative image. While a good process for adding indicia, any process that involves a separate printing step to form the decorative image, is easily defeated by the counterfeiter who merely needs to copy the indicia and print the information directly onto the counterfeit electronic devices or electronic device components. The counterfeiter hides the misdeed by simply labeling the counterfeit microcontroller with the counterfeited indicia.
In addition to counterfeit protection, there is a broader need for embedded information to be co-located with electronic devices. Other uses for embedded information include operating instructions, testing protocols, product traceability information, marketing or other peripheral communications and more. To-date there have been no solutions that have enabled embedded information to be co-located with electrical devices which make use of the properties of the transparent thin-films of today's electronics.
Therefore, there remains a need for embedding information directly into electronics with no additional process steps. The embedded information should be detectible and decodeable for its intended purpose. For counterfeit prevention, easily detectable information will enable customers to be able to verify that the manufacturers' product is genuine.